Hyderabad: UGC additional secretary Dr Pankaj Mittal has a piece of advice for parents on the eve of Akshaya Tritiya. She urged them to invest in education instead of in gold for better returns. Awareness on imparting higher education has increased among all sections of the people and one should save money for investing it in education, she said.
Dr Mittal said that the average funds given by the Union Government on a student of the Central University is Rs 3 lakh, while it spends Rs 3,000 on a student in state varsity. “Of the Rs 10,000 crore Union Budget for higher education, Rs 6,000 crore goes to 47 central varsities. The rest of the Rs 4,000crore is distributed among 800 universities and 47,000 affiliated colleges. However, state universities do get additional funding from the state governments and also under RUSA (Rashtr-iya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan,” she said.
The UGC additional secretary proposed the creation of a University Social Responsibil-ity (USR) system, under which varsities can engage and assist local communities and help in the betterment of their lives. She said UGC was according top priority to this area. As part of promoting community-university partnerships, UGC will be establishing Centres for Society, wherein the funded institution will be instructed to take up community engagement exercises. Nearly Rs 2.5crore will be given for a three-year period, she said.
Dr Mittal made a mention of a pilot project on these lines in Bhagat Pool Singh Mahila Vishwavidyalaya in Haryana, saying it paid dividends.
